Unexpected Help
by Aesyl
Summary: Takeda's reaction to Natsuki's rejection letter. Words from an unexpected source help him get over it.


**Disclaimer:** I don't own Mai-HiME, Sunrise does.

**A/N:** In "Natsuki's Prelude", we are told that Takeda receives a rejection letter from Natsuki saying, "Thank you. I'm sorry."

This takes place after Chapter 20 of my story, "Just a Little Bit". However, you don't need to read that in order to get this.

The sky of Fuka Gakuen that day was a clear, bright blue. The sun was shining for all of its worth, and the flowers below seemed to be reaching upwards in response. Birds twittered to each other, hopping to and fro, excited for another busy day. All in all, it was a fine morning, and many students were taking advantage of this by roaming the outdoor campus.

Takeda Masashi, however, did not share the happy sentiments of what seemed to be everyone and everything around him. In fact, he was downright depressed, the reason for which was held numbly in his left hand. Stiff fingers barely kept a white envelope in place as he walked around aimlessly, still in his kendo uniform from earlier this morning. He wasn't even allowed to practice, as Tate unceremoniously steered him back outside and ordered him to take care of himself. Kendo would have helped him forget about the envelope's contents, even if only for a few moments.

_'Thank you. I'm sorry.'_

The words echoed within his mind ceaselessly, and he absently wondered if maybe this was divine retribution for his 'passions of youth'. Could such a heavenly being as Kuga Natsuki read his thoughts? It wasn't as if he _meant_ to have impure thoughts. He couldn't help it! Even with all of the rigorous training he put himself through, they kept reoccuring in his mind's eye, and his body reacted the way any sane teenage male would. It was hard finding all of those tissues for his nosebleeds on such short notice, and even harder to explain why he needed them (when he could get the words out at all). Girls were unfortunately the most likely source of said tissues, and their knowing smiles and giggles hidden behind a polite hand brought him enough dishonor to bury himself. At least they were kind enough to give him those tissues.

Takeda shakily ran the fingers of his right hand through his spikes and reminded himself to exhale. Forgetting to breathe properly was a bad habit of his when he became upset. It was one of the reasons why his father encouraged him to take up kendo, which required him to breathe right, or else he wouldn't have the energy to swing correctly. Did she hate kendo - was that it? Or did she think he wasn't strong enough? But he was one of the reasons why their team almost made it to Nationals, before Tate got injured, so that couldn't be it. He was so busy trying to rationalize why Kuga rejected his feelings with such finality that he almost missed the voice calling out his name.

"Takeda-sempai!" He looked around dazedly from his thoughts and tried to find the source of the voice. It was a girl, which was unusual, since he never gave any of them a reason to talk to him. He was never rude or curt; on the contrary he always tried to be as polite as possible, but he lacked the charm that Kanzaki had. Maybe that was why Kuga...?

"Takeda-sempai, are you alright?" A brown-haired girl in a short ponytail tapped his shoulder from behind. Takeda turned to face her. She looked vaguely familiar. If he wasn't wrong, she looked like 

one of Kuga's classmates. Still, that didn't really explain why she would approach him, especially with such a worried look. Most girls who talked to him acted like he was an illiterate monkey.

"Oh. Hello," he bowed slightly. "Sorry but, uh, what was your name again?"

The girl smiled a little and bowed in kind. "Higurashi Akane. I'm a classmate of Kuga-san."

"Kuga, huh?" He sighed and his fingers convulsively tightened their hold on the letter. Talking with this girl wasn't high on his list of priorities, but it would be dishonorable if he was rude. Might as well make it quick, if he could. "What can I do for you, Higurashi?"

"You're really out of it, aren't you sempai?" Her face returned to its worried expression. Takeda wondered if he had said something wrong. Great, another girl he had no luck with, even if didn't want to be involved with her.

She suddenly took his arm and dragged him over to a nearby bench, muttering, "I'm supposed to be meeting Kazu-kun later but... it can't be helped..."

"H-huh?!" What was with the females of this academy? First the Executive Director, now her - why does no one just ask him to come with him? No, they had to drag him everywhere!

"Sempai, if there's something troubling you, you should talk about it with someone," she advised quietly, shocking his mental voice into silence with her perception.

Takeda replied despondently, "Talking won't change anything. She's made up her mind. I have to respect that." Even if it didn't make sense, but there was no need to go into detail with someone he didn't know.

"Oh. Did Kuga-san...?" At his short nod, Akane gave him a sympathetic look, "I see." She paused and looked up into the sky with a reminiscing expression.

Takeda almost groaned at noticing this. He could almost guarantee that she was about to tell him a story that was going to cheer him up. He didn't want to be cheered up! He just wanted to know _why_. It would be rude to stop her, though. He wasn't like Tate, a passive-aggressive fool. Just a fool. He busied himself with smoothing out the invisible wrinkles on the envelope. Maybe if he stared at it long enough, words will appear that would explain everything.

"Hey, sempai?" Akane spoke up so suddenly that he had almost forgotten she was there.

"Huh? Oh, uh, yeah?" He responded eloquently.

"I was scared, you know, when I confessed to Kazu-kun how much I liked him." Takeda found it strange how she could say it without blushing or stuttering. "I wanted to run away and live under a rock until he forgot that I ever spoke to him." She smiled at him, and went on, "I really admired the way Takeda-sempai was always so forward with Kuga-san. I was lucky that Kazu-kun felt the same way for me, so it wasn't a case of accepting or rejecting my feelings. But you, 

Takeda-sempai, you never gave up. Watching you gave me courage to confess. Especially since it was Kuga-san. She's pretty hard to get close to, huh?"

"Y-yeah, a little," he stuttered in reply. Then Akane's words hit him. He gave her courage? More importantly, did _everyone_ know about his feelings? Oh man… was that why Kuga rejected him? Did he embarrass her in front of everyone with his transparent attempts to get to know her? He should have asked Reito for advice…

"Ah!"

Akane's exclamation halted Takeda's inner ramblings as he turned to face her, slightly worried.

"Is everything alright? What happened?"

"Kazu-kun just texted me," she explained quickly, getting up. "I'm so sorry to suddenly leave you like this, sempai, but I have to go." She gave a short bow farewell and started off in the direction where, presumably, Kazuya was. Before Takeda could say anything, she called out over her shoulder, "Sempai! Call me if you need to talk, okay?" And she disappeared from view.

Girls were too weird for him to understand. Maybe he should just focus on kendo and school for now. Surprisingly, though, he felt a lot better after talking to that random girl. Kuga would probably laugh at him, anyway, if she saw him. Yeah.


End file.
